


Gradual

by GemmaRose



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Fluff, Kissing, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 01:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7338484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It starts with a forgotten shirt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gradual

M’gann held one of Conner’s shirts in her hands, rubbing the soft black fabric between her fingers. They had fallen asleep on the couch in the middle of a movie, and when Red Tornado prodded them to go sleep in their own beds, Conner had simply followed M’gann into her room. It had been late, and his room was far enough down the hallway that he didn’t want to bother shuffling the rest of the way. Her green cheeks warmed, and she buried her face in his shirt as sleep-fogged memories began to clear up.

He had shucked off his shirt while she shifted her day clothes into pyjamas, and then crawled into bed behind her and curled up against her back with an arm draped heavily over her waist. He’d been gone when she woke up, but his shirt was still here. Should she return it, or would it be more acceptable to leave it in her room and wait for him to collect it the next time he did laundry? Yeah, she’d do that. Conner did his laundry on Mondays, and it was Friday now, so he’d pick it up in a few days.

\---

Three weeks later, his shirt was still in her room. M’gann didn’t have to do laundry, thanks to her clothes being biotech, but she had run a small load of Conner’s shirt along with the pair of jeans and slightly bloody jacket which had wound up in her room. He had yet to ask for any of them back. M’gann wondered if it was Kryptonian custom to leave things of yours in your partner’s space, then shook her head. No, Conner wasn’t of Earth the same way the rest of their team was, but it was all he’d ever known. And with Superman keeping his distance, her boyfriend had yet to learn anything about his non-terrestrial heritage.

Maybe it was a human thing? She would have to ask Artemis about it sometime, when she was certain they were out of range of Conner’s super-hearing. If this was a custom she was supposed to already know about, then it would be _so_ embarrassing for him to overhear that conversation.

\---

M’gann hummed happily, and turned over to snuggle against the warm body curled halfway around her. The arm around her waist tightened slightly, and after a few sleepy seconds her brain finally put together the various sensory inputs. Her right hand was pressed against a broad, strong back, her fingertips pressed against the slight spinal ridge just below the shoulder blades. An arm much thicker and more muscular than her own rested over her waist, the hand on the end curled gently between the mattress and the left side of her ribcage. Her legs were tangled with another pair, and right in front of her barely-open eyes was a very familiar face.

Her mouth curled into a smile, and she leaned in to press a kiss to the edge of her boyfriend’s mouth. His beautiful blue eyes opened slowly, like he didn’t particularly want to wake up, and when they focused they immediately locked with hers. Then they widened, his whole body tensing, and he pulled away so fast he actually fell off the bed. She shivered as she sat up, pulling on the blanket so it stayed wrapped around her shoulders. It was a poor substitute, though, and she could’ve easily established a mental link but Conner didn’t like having someone in his mind without warning, so she didn’t.

After a minute of Conner’s hastily stuttered apologies, M’gann finally got an answer about his strange behaviour. Apparently, on Earth it was considered uncouth for girls and boys to sleep together before marriage. After another few seconds of assuring her boyfriend that she wasn’t laughing at him, at least not in a cruel way, M’gann pulled Conner down to sit in front of her for another kiss. Sure they were on Earth, but since neither of them were human, Earth custom didn’t really matter so much when it didn’t involve the rest of the team.

\---

When Zatara moved into the mountain, M’gann didn’t think twice about offering her assistance to their new teammate. She probably should’ve thought to mention that Conner spent most nights in her room now, many of his things having migrated over to the dresser drawers she had no use for. Zatara attempted to bring her breakfast in bed for some reason she never actually got to hear, and they hadn’t even noticed the door was open until the tray hit the floor. Zatara hadn’t been able to look either of them in the eye for a solid four days afterward.

Conner pressed a gentle kiss to the back of her shoulder, and M’gann let her mind drift back to the current situation. It had started so gradually, as she’d found things on Earth tended to do, but now she and Conner were actually discussing whether or not he should move the rest of his stuff to her room and make it theirs. So far, the only thing either of them had thought of against the plan was that they’d have to find space for Wolf’s bed, and if they ever took it further than heavy makeouts neither of them wanted Conner’s pet in the room. Aside from that, well, Conner didn’t have very many things, and it was human custom to enact large changes at the start of a new year.

\---

A bit over four years later, Conner took everything of his and moved it back into his room. M’gann sat curled up in the middle of their bed, now only hers again, and did her best not to look at the empty spots on her shelves, the dark spot on the floor where Wolf’s bed had protected the carpet, the dresser which was as empty as it had been upon her arrival and would remain so from now on. Despite how little was actually missing, her room felt more barren than it had when she moved into the mountain.

\---

M’gann taped down the poster’s final corner and stepped back, tilting her head slightly. No, yeah, it was straight. Her new room on the Watchtower was a bit bigger than her old one in Mount Justice, and Uncle J’onn had gone shopping with her to help choose decorations. She was just turning to the box for her desk when someone knocked on the door, and she opened it with her powers. Conner was standing there with a small smile on his face, holding an obnoxiously green glass paperweight with a small base containing green LEDs. It had been a gift from Wally for his first Christmas, and M’gann remembered laughing with Artemis and Zatara as the speedster tried to explain why a fake kryptonite paperweight was a funny gift.

Now it was a gift for her, something to remember their friend by after everything that happened at the North Pole. It was also, in a way, something of Conner’s. That night, as M’gann laid in bed and tried to get to get to sleep in the Watchtower’s artificial gravity, her eyes landed on the paperweight. It only took a slight telekinetic nudge to flip the power switch on the bottom, and a dim green glow filled the room. It was familiar, comforting. She fell asleep quickly, with the hazy hope in her mind that this would be what Conner’s shirt was last time, the first step towards something more.


End file.
